Toy Maker
The Toy Maker is an indirect antagonist in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate, through his many creations and innovations of death. though he is never actually seen until near the very end of the game, near the end of Trevor's story. Appearance The Toy Maker's appearance remains a mystery for the majority of the game. His first appearance is on a painting on a wall, and his face appears on the stained-glass windows of the Toy Maker's Workshop. He is first truly seen near the end of Trevor's journey. He wears red glasses, an outrageous red outfit, and his skin is of an unnatural blue hue. His nose is notably large and pointed, and his teeth are long and sharp. His appearance before the curse placed on him is only suggested, through stained-glass windows and official artwork. As a human, the Toy Maker's glasses were clear, his skin a normal color, his nose smaller, and his hair shorter. Story Early Life At a time, the Toy Maker was the brightest pupil of Rinaldo Gandolfi. However, he much preferred to build toys for children and the skill that gave him his name made him legendary across the lands. However, hearing of his skill was one Walter Bernhard, a member of the Bernhard family who offered the Toy Maker a place in his Castle to make his craft. However the Toy Maker didn't realize until it was too late that Walter came from a family of dark occultists who summoned a demon to possess the kind soul, twisting his craft in the darkest way and making for the Castle's Master weapons of death and destruction, some being the Dark Pain, the Stopwatch, and the Macabre Puppet, and Gargoyles. However, the Demon couldn't completely corrupt the Toy Maker's kind soul resulting in something of split personality, the original kind old man and the childish and sadistic demon within. Sometime during this period, after being touched by the puppet of a child, seeking to save his soul from the demon within and escape Walter Bernhard, who had discovered he had regained his innocence, he removed his heart, putting him into a deep slumber. It is unknown his fate while Carmilla took the castle and only then until Gabriel Belmont, rechristened Dracula, took over as well. Mirror of Fate Through the events of Mirror of Fate, the Toy Maker returns somehow, but was a largely unseen presence. After the Daemon Lord's death at the hands of Trevor Belmont, the Toy Maker watched on. He then used its remains to rebuild it, using the demon to gather souls for his experiments. During Alucard's journey, Alucard passes through the Toy Maker's workshop and assembly line, and stops his deadly carousel that threatened to kill Simon Belmont. He mentioned that after Dracula's apparent defeat at the hands of Simon Belmont and Alucard he scavenged the area and found a fragment of the Mirror of Fate. Afterwards he went back to rest. Lords of Shadow 2 Dracula discovers The Toy Maker's lifeless body in the Puppet Theatre and returns his heart to bring him back to life and collect his fragment of the Mirror of Fate. The Toy Maker, who initially suffers from partial amnesia due to the centuries of lethargy, does not recognize Dracula, and becomes possessed by the blood of the castle. He transforms into the mechanical Puppet Master, and launches a knight puppet and a dragon puppet during his battle with Dracula. After he is defeated, Toy Maker regurgitates the castle's blood and reverts back to normal. He frighteningly recognizes his visitor and gives him the fragment of the Mirror of Fate, after which Dracula tells him not to lose his heart, leaving him behind crying. Battle Quotes *Damn! Stop undermining my play! *Hey! Where did you go? *Let's improve the staging... *Don't get up. The show's not over yet! *Let's see how well you play your death scene! *I'll smash you like a flea! *Come on. Improvise now! *You look so little from up here! *How do you plan to get me way up here? *Ouch! That hurts! *Phew... that was close. Trivia *His bonding souls to the Macabre Puppets is similar to the Puppeteer mentioned in Lords of Shadow, whose spell bonded souls to the skeletons of retainers. It is possible that the two are one in the same. *In Mirror of Fate, most of the Toy Maker's backstory or references to his technology is told through scattered Brotherhood scrolls. Some of it appears in the description for Dark Pain and Improved Dark Pain weapons, and description for the Stop Watch, and some of the other sub weapons in the game. He also has his own Bestiary listing, though he is not actually ever fought. *There is one reference to Frankenstein's experiments in one of the Toy Maker's rooms in a Brotherhood scroll. This may suggest that the Toy Maker's identity may be Frankenstein, or that he has simply continued Frankenstein's research. But it's not clear, however Toy Maker can not be Frankenstein because the Toy Maker has all his fingers, while Frankenstein is presumed long dead and his fingers are loose collectables in Reverie. **The Toy Maker became a servant under Dracula, similar to how Frankenstein was to Carmilla. Both served under the Bernhards previously. *The Stopwatch is similar to the time machine technology Frankenstein was working on, based on the research of Emmet Marron. *During Alucard's trip through the castle, Alucard can see images of the Toy Maker including a painting on a wall, and his face on stain glass windows. These appear to show how the Toy Maker appeared before his 'curse'. *A puppet show puzzle in Lords of Shadow 2 tells the tragic story of the fall of the Toy Maker. The story ends with the kindness of a young boy helping the Toymaker find his humanity again. In order to escape of Walter Bernhard, he removed his heart, and gave it to the boy to hide (so that it couldn't be corrupted again). The heart was hidden in the puppet show telling the story. This doesn't quite explain his appearance at a later date in Lords of Shadow. Unless his body was still being possessed even without the heart. *The Toy Maker's identity is still rather mysterious even with more of a backstory given in Lords of Shadow 2. While both games suggest that he is the protégé of Gandolfi, he is never given a specific identity. This could possibly be mistaken rumor, one possibility is that he actually is Gandolfi which would explain why many of his devices are similar or continuations of Gandolfi's designs. *Many of the toy maker's designs are oriental in nature, from the red bridges in his guest house to the toy dragon bearing close resemblance to a chinese dragon. *The Toy Maker encorperates the Master Librarian's line "Heh heh hee, thank you!" from Symphony of the Night in his initial adress to Dracula when the vampire lord restores his heart. Related Scrolls Category:Characters Category:Villains Category:Mirror of Fate Characters Category:Lords of Shadow 2 Characters Category:Lords of Shadow 2 Bosses Category:Mirror of Fate Category:Lords of Shadow 2 Category:Lords of Shadow 2 Enemies Category:Bosses Category:Human